AP: The Pennsylvania Republican Party wants an investigation into a promotion by Fayette County Democrats at the recent county fair to get people to register as Democrats or change party affiliation. The GOP says the offer of Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia … Continue reading
Category Archives: chicanery
News & Observer: Gov. Roy Cooper failed Tuesday afternoon to get a temporary freeze on two proposed constitutional amendments he has called legislative power grabs, with a Superior Court judge declaring that a three-judge panel should have the first chance … Continue reading
CNN: Kris Kobach, the former vice-chair of President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded commission on election integrity, and Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap have engaged in a public back and forth over the issue of voter fraud, with Kobach accusing Dunlap, a … Continue reading
Listen at NPR’s Here & Now. … Continue reading
Bob Bauer NYT oped. … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
TPM: A Virginia judge appointed a special prosecutor Tuesday to look into a case of potential forgery and other election law violations after multiple suspicious signatures were found on a petition to get an independent congressional candidate on the ballot, the Richmond … Continue reading
Release via email: The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is suing the Justice Department today for refusing to turn over documents related to a controversial letter DOJ sent last year, which sought detailed information about how … Continue reading
NYT: Top national security officials vowed Thursday to defend American elections against what they called real threats from Russia only weeks after President Trump seemed to accept President Vladimir V. Putin’s denials of interference during a summit meeting in Finland. … Continue reading
Quite a story in the LAT: When state Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas resigned suddenly in December, it marked an abrupt halt to a promising political career. The son of powerful Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas had enjoyed the backing of … Continue reading
NYT: They covered their tracks, using software to camouflage their internet traffic. They created Facebook pages for anti-Trump culture warriors, Hispanic activists and fans of alternative medicine. And they organized protests in coordination with real-world political groups. The people behind … Continue reading
NYT: Facebook has been under intense pressure since the 2016 presidential election for failing to detect foreign meddling on its platform. The company did not identify who was behind the latest influence campaign, but it said the activity mimicked the manipulation of … Continue reading
CNN: Two leading senators are asserting that President Donald Trump has not focused on the clear threat the Kremlin poses in the 2018 elections, with one Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee contending that Russian hackers may have already targeted … Continue reading
Progressive Pulse: The Constitution Party of North Carolina is following through on its threat to sue the state over ballot access restrictions. The Party and three of its members — James Poindexter of Surry County, Jerry Jones of Greene County … Continue reading
NYT: Facebook said on Tuesday that it had identified a political influence campaign that was potentially built to disrupt the midterm elections, with the company detecting and removing 32 pages and fake accounts that had engaged in activity around divisive social issues. … Continue reading
Four Pinnochios for this one. The bigger question is whether there will be consequences for Secretary Ross lying to Congress. … Continue reading
NBC News: After nearly two years of calling Russian election interference a hoax and its investigation a witch hunt, on Friday afternoon President Donald Trump is scheduled to preside over the first National Security Council meeting devoted to defending American democracy from … Continue reading
A brief exploration in seven tweets. … Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I reported on a candidate for state Supreme Court Justice in North Carolina. He is running as a Republican even though he used to be a Democrat. Republicans suspect he’s doing this to split the R … Continue reading
Hi, @rickhasen. This the sort of thing you were talking about? Dept of Commerce, in May 2017: "We need to work with Justice to get them to request that citizenship be added back as a census question….I will arrange a … Continue reading
Politico: Gov. Bruce Rauner, who’s campaigning as an anti-corruption crusader, today found himself fending off attacks on his own ethics after attending an event where a political ally handed out $300,000 in cash. The cash giveaway happened after the Republican … Continue reading
News & Observer: The state legislature will return to Raleigh on Tuesday to write short introductions to six constitutional amendments after a high-ranking House Republican voiced suspicions about a special three-member commission responsible for writing them. The legislature “must prevent … Continue reading
Newsweek: A Republican National Committee spokesperson was shut down during a Fox News segment on Saturday after suggesting that Democrats want “hundreds of thousands of Russians” to come to the United States and vote in elections. … Continue reading
NYT: Federal authorities examining the work President Trump’s former lawyer did to squelch embarrassing stories before the 2016 election have come to believe that an important ally in that effort, the tabloid company American Media Inc., at times acted more … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: If only members of one party are running in an election, so the primary will decide the race, the primary is open to all voters. But if any other candidate files, including a write-in, the primary is … Continue reading
WSJ: MIchael Cohen taped a conversation in person with Donald Trump in which the two men discussed buying the rights to a former Playboy Playmate’s story that she had an affair with Mr. Trump more than a decade ago, according … Continue reading
Bob Barnes in WaPo: A Russian company accused by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III of being part of an online operation to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign is leaning in part on a decision by Supreme Court nominee Brett … Continue reading
Kim Zetter for Politico. … Continue reading
WaPo: The head of the nation’s largest electronic spy agency and the military’s cyberwarfare arm has quietly directed the two organizations to coordinate actions to counter potential Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections. The move, announced to staff at … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
WaPo: A Russian company accused of bankrolling a massive online operation to disrupt the 2016 presidential election argued Monday that it had broken no federal laws, that it was merely supporting free political speech and that the fraud charge against … Continue reading
NYT: Russian woman who tried to broker a secret meeting between Donald J. Trump and the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, during the 2016 presidential campaign was charged Monday and accused of working with Americans to carry out a secret … Continue reading
WSJ: A senior FBI official overseeing a government task force that addresses Russian attempts to meddle in U.S. elections has left the government for a job in the private sector, a departure that comes just months ahead of the 2018 … Continue reading
I very much appreciate Rick allowing me to guest-blog this past week during his well-deserved vacation. Subbing for him is an honor, and I’m invevitably reminded of all the work that he devotes to keeping all of us aware and … Continue reading
Politico: “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Friday that hackers within Russia’s GRU military intelligence service targeted state and local election boards, infiltrated a Florida-based company that supplies software for voting machines across the country, and broke into a state … Continue reading
Available here. The indictment alleges a conspiracy to hack the systems of not only the DNC and Clinton campaign, but also election authorities. PBS: The indictment said two named defendants knowingly conspired to hack computers of U.S. “persons,” state agencies and … Continue reading
News and Observer: North Carolina Republicans are crying foul over a candidate who could change the balance of the state Supreme Court. And that candidate is a Republican. Raleigh attorney Chris Anglin filed at the last minute last week. He … Continue reading
Lohud.com: Volvy Smilowitz, also known as Zev Smilowitz, 29, of Monroe, pleaded guilty June 18 in White Plains federal court to one count of conspiracy to corrupt the Bloomingburg village electoral process by falsely registering numerous voters who don’t live in the … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM: Nearly six months after President Trump, citing growing litigation, dissolved his sketchy voter fraud commission, a federal judge in Washington said Wednesday that certain commission documents should be turned over to one of its commissioners, who sued last … Continue reading
Star-Telegram: Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez wants an Ellis County court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging her 717-vote primary runoff win for the 6th Congressional District over Ruby Woolridge. She filed court records saying the lawsuit filed by Woolridge — which alleges Sanchez … Continue reading
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The chairman of the Missouri House committee that investigated former Gov. Eric Greitens sent out a scathing letter Monday calling Greitens’ dark-money group a “criminal enterprise” and saying that if Greitens had not resigned, the committee would … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM: Former Trump voter fraud commissioner J. Christian Adams was in a federal court in Virginia Friday to defend reports his group released in 2016 and 2017 alleging that thousands of non-citizens were illegally registered to vote … Continue reading
WaPo: During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with … Continue reading
Bob in the Altantic: The law governing the activity of charitable organizations can be complex, but on the question of whether 501(c)(3) charities can engage in political activity, it could not be more straightforward. They cannot. The IRS enforces an … Continue reading
News and Observer: One of the most popular days for early voting would be eliminated under a proposal that supporters say is meant to bring uniformity to the 100 North Carolina counties’ one-stop voting schedules. Rep. David Lewis, a chief … Continue reading
Gerry Cohen oped for the News and Observer: There are important questions to be resolved before the legislature votes to put voter photo identification in the state Constitution via referendum. The ballot question says, “Every person offering to vote in … Continue reading
McClatchy reports: Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to photographs and … Continue reading
Topeka Capital-Journal: Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said three weeks ago Kobach had paid the penalty “out of his own pocket.” However, a Kansas Open Records Act request of the Kansas Department of Administration produced records … Continue reading
KC Star: The Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a citizen grand jury can proceed with an investigation of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in Douglas County. Steven Davis, a Democratic candidate for the Kansas House, first filed a … Continue reading
KC Star: The Missouri House has dropped its effort to enforce a subpoena demanding documents from former Gov. Eric Greitens’ secretive dark money nonprofit. Lawmakers had asked Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem to force Greitens’ nonprofit, called A … Continue reading